Kalenjin political leader Ruto has come out to describe the recent utterances by a section of legislators from the community as a “slip of the tongue’ saying they should be forgiven.
The former Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto said the remarks by Emurua Dikirr MP Johanna Ng’eno and his Kapseret counterpart Oscar Sudi should not be misconstructed to be the position of the community.
Ruto pointed out that statement of the two MPs did not reflect the kind of character of leadership that Kenyans show copy.
“We are shocked and surprised and we never expected that to come from them since they never came into close contact with the Kenyatta family,” Ruto said.
The Chama Cha Mashinani party leader said the statements were not only aimed at painting the community as disrespectful but also intolerant.
“As leaders from the community we want to sincerely apologize to the nation at a large, family of Kenyatta and anyone to whom utterances were directed at or may have offended,” he sais while addressing the press at his Tumoi home in Chepalungu.
He also asked Deputy President Willliam Ruto to reign in ‘errant’ legislatures who he said have continued to taint the name of the Kalenjin community.
Ruto noted that is was sad to see the same leaders continuing to willingly engage in hate speech despite being warned.
According to Ruto, differing in political ideology was healthy as it is a democratic principle but, abuse is not an issue in democratic discourse.
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“As leaders, we differ politically. Even I sometimes differ on some issues with some leaders but I have never abused or insulted anyone…that is a thing of the past which should not happen now as it will take us to the dark ages when communities used to fight,” he said.
“We are now a civilized nation with proper governance structures. We have a President now, we will do an election in 2022 and whoever Kenyans elect we expect peace to continue.”
He also asked Gideon Moi and his party to forgive Ng’eno noting that the leaders within the community will talk to “young leaders” and desist them from making further injurious statements.
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